Teaching · Special Education

Count it before you teach it.

For each self-care skill, enter how many chances the student had and how many they managed alone. The summary writes the baseline sentence for each one, ready for the goal.

Start a baselineWhat you get
$12one-time · every device you sign in on
Buy · $12

Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the New special education teacher kit, $39 for 34 items.

The baseline

One record per student and baseline period. The example is made up.

Loading the form. If nothing appears, turn on JavaScript.

What you get

Teaching · Special Education$12 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
A baseline statement for each skill, ordered least to most independent, with thin or impossible counts flagged.
Who it is for
Special education teachers, school occupational therapists, behavior specialists and paraprofessionals.
Format
Browser organizer. One saved record per baseline; printed with its summary or as a blank form; CSV of skills; export and import a file.
Access
$12 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the New special education teacher kit ($39) and the Special Education toolkit ($99), and 2 more bundles. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Special Education space in Caveat Teaching.
Support
Questions about an order, access or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.
2 of 5, before any teaching
Drawn for this page. A baseline is a count of chances and successes before teaching starts, so progress can be measured against it.

How to use it

  1. Describe each skill the way you see it done, as one observable action.
  2. Count every natural chance over several days, not only practice trials.
  3. Count independent only when no prompt of any kind was given.
  4. Note the prompt you needed most often.
  5. Use the statements as the baseline line of each goal.

Start a baseline

What the organizer covers

Why a baseline

IDEA requires the IEP to state present levels of performance and how progress on each goal will be measured. A count of opportunities and independent attempts gives both a starting point and the unit of measure.

How much data

Five or more opportunities over at least three days is a reasonable floor for a classroom baseline: one hard morning should not set a whole year’s goal.

What it is not

This is direct observation, not a standardized adaptive behavior assessment. It has no norms and does not decide eligibility.

Sources

  1. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 34 CFR 300.320(a)(1) to (3): present levels, measurable annual goals and how progress will be measured.
  2. Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., and Heward, W. L. Applied Behavior Analysis (3rd ed.). Pearson, 2020: chapters on measurement and prompting.
  3. National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorder. Prompting (evidence-based practice brief).
  4. American Occupational Therapy Association. Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain and Process (4th ed.), 2020: activities of daily living.

The example student and counts are made up. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.